I learned to knit a few years ago and really enjoy recreating the colorwork socks that have been excavated in Egypt. Fortunately, Urtatim has charted many of these patterns and I make use of her charts often and with gratitude. I have my eye on some uncharted extant knitted items, but that is a subject for another day.
Babies seem to cause knitters to want to make things. Since I know the babies themselves don't really care, I make something for mom instead. For expectant moms that I'm really close to, I offer a choice between a shawl or socks. My friend Maggie is the first to choose socks.
Most of the extant socks are done in blue and white, but Maggie decided on green and white. I knit all my socks out of super-wash wool so they can be machine washed. I used a fingering weight, from Knit Picks called Stroll. I love this stuff. It looks great, wears well and is inexpensive. I used the forest heather and white.
Typically, the white in the original socks was made of cotton. But Maggie abandoned us for the cold and rainy north and I don't want her to feet to be cold even though she moved away. (Bitter? Whyever do you ask?)
These are based on the Ibex sock, originally make for a child. I've also made several pair for myself and my husband from some of Urtatim's other patterns as well as patterns of my own. I will admit that I treat knitting patterns the way treat recipes. I look at them as a list of suggestions, really. So any differences you see are just my own preferences.
Babies seem to cause knitters to want to make things. Since I know the babies themselves don't really care, I make something for mom instead. For expectant moms that I'm really close to, I offer a choice between a shawl or socks. My friend Maggie is the first to choose socks.
Most of the extant socks are done in blue and white, but Maggie decided on green and white. I knit all my socks out of super-wash wool so they can be machine washed. I used a fingering weight, from Knit Picks called Stroll. I love this stuff. It looks great, wears well and is inexpensive. I used the forest heather and white.
Typically, the white in the original socks was made of cotton. But Maggie abandoned us for the cold and rainy north and I don't want her to feet to be cold even though she moved away. (Bitter? Whyever do you ask?)
These are based on the Ibex sock, originally make for a child. I've also made several pair for myself and my husband from some of Urtatim's other patterns as well as patterns of my own. I will admit that I treat knitting patterns the way treat recipes. I look at them as a list of suggestions, really. So any differences you see are just my own preferences.
These were knitted in the round, you can see the 'jog' where the pattern makes a little step up for the next round. I made these for my husband and myself when we stepped up as Baron and Baroness of the Barony of the South Downs. The coat of arms that represents the group has a red tower on it so I charted some simple towers to add to one of Urtatim's patterns. My first version looked great on graph paper but knitted up resembled space invaders rather than towers.
The sock on the left is part of the pair I made for myself from Knitpicks Stroll in a fingering weight like the Ibex socks above. I wear a size 8 shoe. The sock on the right is concrete proof that I love my husband and his size 14 feet very much. These are done in a DK weight yarn, also from Knitpicks. The first pair of socks I made for him, he requested something 'simple', trying to make things 'easy' on me. This led to the Socks of Profanity, plain red stockinette stitches with a simple band at the top. In fingering weight yarn. On size 00 needles. Because I love my husband. A lot.
Anyway, if you had told me 5 years ago I would consider hand-knit socks to be a necessary luxury I would have laughed. But the truth is, I am a better, more compassionate person when my feet are the correct temperature.
And knitting isn't nearly as hard as it sometimes looks. I promise.
The sock on the left is part of the pair I made for myself from Knitpicks Stroll in a fingering weight like the Ibex socks above. I wear a size 8 shoe. The sock on the right is concrete proof that I love my husband and his size 14 feet very much. These are done in a DK weight yarn, also from Knitpicks. The first pair of socks I made for him, he requested something 'simple', trying to make things 'easy' on me. This led to the Socks of Profanity, plain red stockinette stitches with a simple band at the top. In fingering weight yarn. On size 00 needles. Because I love my husband. A lot.
Anyway, if you had told me 5 years ago I would consider hand-knit socks to be a necessary luxury I would have laughed. But the truth is, I am a better, more compassionate person when my feet are the correct temperature.
And knitting isn't nearly as hard as it sometimes looks. I promise.
